UPDATE 3-Top US commander in Afghanistan under investigation, scandal widens

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The top
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, is under
investigation for alleged inappropriate communication with a
woman at the center of the scandal involving former CIA Director
David Petraeus, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.

The revelation threatens to fell another of the U.S.
military's biggest names and suggests that the scandal involving
Petraeus - a retired four-star general who had Allen's job in
Afghanistan before moving to the CIA last year - could expand.

The U.S. official said the FBI uncovered between 20,000 and
30,000 pages of communications - mostly emails spanning from
2010 to 2012 - between Allen and Jill Kelley, who has been
identified as a longtime friend of the Petraeus family and a
Tampa, Florida, volunteer social liaison with military families
at MacDill Air Force Base.

It was Kelley's complaints about harassing emails from the
woman with whom Petraeus had had an affair, Paula Broadwell,
that prompted an FBI investigation that ultimately disclosed
Petraeus' involvement with Broadwell. Petraeus resigned from the
CIA post on Friday.

Asked whether there was concern about the disclosure of
classified information, the official said, on condition of
anonymity: "We are concerned about inappropriate communications.
We are not going to speculate as to what is contained in these
documents."

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters flying with
him to Australia that he had asked that Allen's nomination to be
Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander
Europe be delayed "and the president has agreed."

President Barack Obama has put the nomination on hold, the
White House said on Tuesday.

Allen, who is now in Washington, was due to face a Senate
confirmation hearing on Thursday, as was his successor in
Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford.

The FBI referred the case to the Pentagon on Sunday and
Panetta directed the Defense Department's Inspector General to
handle the investigation. Panetta informed the top Republican
and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee during the
flight to Australia. The House Armed Services Committee was also
notified.

The U.S. defense official said that Allen denied wrongdoing
and that Panetta had opted to keep him in his job while the
matter was under review - and until Dunford can be confirmed to
replace him, a process that gains urgency given the cloud the
scandal could cast over the mission in Afghanistan.

"While the matter is under investigation and before the
facts are determined, General Allen will remain commander of
ISAF," Panetta said, referring to the NATO-led force in
Afghanistan.

Only hours earlier, Panetta had said he was reviewing
Allen's recommendations on the future U.S. presence in
Afghanistan after most troops withdraw by the end of 2014.

Commending Allen's leadership in Afghanistan, Panetta said:
"He is entitled to due process in this matter."

At the same time, he noted that he wanted the Senate to act
promptly on Dunford's nomination.

The U.S. official said Panetta was informed of the matter
involving Allen on Sunday as he flew to Hawaii, after the
Pentagon's top lawyer called Panetta's chief of staff. The White
House was informed next.

FBI RAID, SHIRTLESS PHOTOS

Evidence that the case involving Petraeus was not fully
closed came late Monday when FBI agents searched the Charlotte,
North Carolina, house of Broadwell.

Agents entered the house carrying boxes at around 9 p.m.
(0200 GMT Tuesday) and about four hours later took away what
appeared to be two computers and about 10 boxes.

During the search, agents inside could be seen moving
through multiple rooms, gathering materials and taking photos.

Broadwell's family was not at home at the time. The FBI and
a Justice Department official would not comment on the raid.

U.S. officials had said in recent days that their
investigation was largely complete and that prosecutors had
determined it was unlikely they would bring charges in that
case, which started when Kelley contacted an FBI agent in Tampa
about harassing emails from an anonymous source.

That FBI agent, who has not been identified, has also come
under scrutiny after it was discovered he had sent shirtless
photographs of himself to Kelley, but "long before" this
investigation, a law enforcement official told Reuters. The
photographs were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The agent had never been on the Broadwell case, but had
taken the information about the emails to the FBI cyber squad in
Tampa, the law enforcement official said.

The FBI agent, who works in the Tampa office, apparently
became frustrated at the pace of the investigation and
complained to a member of Congress about it, the official said.

The FBI investigation of the emails received by Kelley
traced them to Broadwell and subsequently uncovered emails that
revealed an affair between Broadwell and Petraeus.

The emails between the two women were of a "childish",
jealous nature and showed some one-upmanship of trying to come
across as being more important to Petraeus, the official said.

When Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Friday he publicly
admitted to having engaged in an extramarital affair.

Lawmakers and others have questioned whether Broadwell, who
co-wrote a biography of the decorated former general, obtained
classified information from him or another source.

Panetta had earlier said Petraeus did the right thing by
stepping down, given the security concerns, but he was saddened
by the end of the retired general's distinguished career.